quill
Meaning
-
- The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.
- A pen made from a feather.
- Any pen.
- A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators.
- A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
- The pen of a squid.
- The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
- The tube of a musical instrument.
- Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.
- A quill drive, having a hollow shaft with another movable shaft inside it.
Synonyms
quill pen
quill drive
quill-pen
rachis
tail feathers
pierce through
pan-pipe
basic shaft
main arbor
lower shaft
liner bushing
telescopic axle
goose feather
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/kwɪl/
Etymology
From late Middle English quyl, which is first attested in the early 15th century with the meanings "fragment of reed" and "shaft of a feather", probably from Low German and Middle Low German quiele, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to pierce, stick”). Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.
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Notes